Approximately $406,727 is spent annually to maintain one prison inmate, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee told the National Assembly on Thursday.
The minister was responding to a question asked by AFC Leader Raphael Trotman. Rohee submitted a written reply to the question in which he pointed out that the figures were based on statistics available from last year. In December, Rohee had told the National Assembly that at the end of September, there were 1,058 persons incarcerated in the Georgetown Prison. Based on this figure, the government spends an average of $430,317,166 (US$2.1million) a year to maintain the prisoners in the Georgetown Prison only. Guyana has six other prisons, two in Berbice, one at Lusignan, Sibley Hall at Essequibo and one in Mazaruni for which no figures were given. In December, the minister had said that the figure at the end of September represented a decrease in prisoners as of January 31, last year. The minister said too that as at January 31, last year, 1,203 persons were incarcerated on this date including 714 persons who were on remand awaiting trial.
Human rights activists have argued consistently that the Camp Street jail is overcrowded as it was built to house around 800 inmates.
Roshe, when you talk we done know is what coming out of your mouth….share…
Have you ever been in Camp street or Lusignan prisons to see how those people are living???? How the hell can u say that yall spending that amount on money on one prisoner, have you subtracted and divide the money that has to go in the pocket??
Have you seen the food they cook there for the prisoners, you ever saw the accommodation???
If we take our foot out of our mouths before we talk then we wouldn’t spit on ourselves while talking.
Here is a question I have for rohee how much do we spend to fly jagdeo out of Guyana every weekend?
Can you get us that number minister of home affairs?
What can we do to keep this man at home to look after the affairs of the state Rohee?
put them to cut cane under armed guard
Cut Cane??? Like you one minded or wuh there are many other things these prisioners can do besides cutting cane.
That $406,727 figure is just an average: some prisoners will require more; others, less. And assuming there are 250,000 taxpayers it means that each of us is paying $1.62 annually to support one prisoner. Again just an average. Beware of the average.
That just shows what a slacker you are rohee. You should be addressing what you are doing to fix the problem you have at Georgetown prisons where you have a prison designed for 600 ppl and you have 1000 plus in there.
Plus that thing was built in the stone ages it is not able to cope with criminals produced in a modern society.
You and the PPP need to take that 3 Billion lotto funds and spend the money on Guyana and to benefit the interest of Guyanese.
I’m convince this man is a magician…he is using “fuzzy” math to “hoodwink” and “bamboozled” the citizens of GY. The figure he gives is TOTALLY USELESS and DOES not represent the REAL cost of what the GY government is currently spending per prisoner because it does not take into account the other six prisons around the country. To not have the figures for the other six prisons shows how OUT OF TOUCH this guy is. What an embarrassment?
if that amount is correct it is sad to know that so much is waste every year , why I say waste is because no system is been put in place as of today to turn some of these petty criminal from their ways that will go a long way in reducing the over head cost in the long run everyday I could read of people been remand or send to jail soon the whole country will be convicts something need to be done people could somebody come up with a plan to save some money hope so.
petty criminal, no one is a petty criminal, a criminal is a criminal.
Would you consider the theft of 34 million us dollars petty crime Freespeech?
How about 3 Billion in lotto funds yearly that no one including the auditor general knows where it being funnelled?
How come all this money is not accounted for freespeech?
is that high crime or petty crime?
Most of them are on remand ,spend more money on judiciary and give them speedy trials, those convicted for murder,robbery including white collar and rape give them hard labour and send them to mazaruni, the rest first offenders fine and community service,second offence or more hard labour, there must be facilities for rehabilitation.
What? Is the government out of it’s mind? Does the government spend $400,000 a year on each pensioner, destitute children and mothers,the sick who cannot afford healthcare.This is slackness and has to be immediately stopped.The government must build Devil’s Island type prisons to house criminals, away from society, where they are made to be self sufficient.
Can the auditor general confirm these numbers? I highly doubt they can.
I also wonder what could cost that amount of money when I was made to understand that prisoners have family members taking three meals per day to them and they have to have their own bed-sheets.Rohee should get these to cultivate their own food or work in some way to earn their keeps…take them to the interior to mine the gold that the Brazilizns are mining….let them contribute in one way or the other to the comunity….IDLE BRAINS IS THE DEVIL’D WORK-SHOP..KEEP THEM BUSY
Deze I would like to know it that amount(400,000) is above or below the minimum wage, and aslo, who is to say that half of that amount is not pocketed by the powers that be?
rohee usually makes me laugh but this time i am overwhelmed with laughter. the government might be allotting that amount of money but surely the prisoners are not seeing a cent of it.